Winter 2020: Introducing the Women in Medicine Committee
Gender equality efforts over the past 50 years have resulted in a more diversified workforce. Today, one-third of physicians in the U.S. are women, and that number will only grow with over 50% of incoming medical students identifying as female. There should be little surprise, then, that research on gender issues within medicine is growing as well—and that research is shedding light on many areas in need of improvement, such as unequal salaries for male and female physicians of equal skill level; implicit gender bias that affects decision-making in patient care; higher rates of burnout, depression and suicide for female physicians; lack of mentorship for women in medicine; and much more.
The question then becomes: what can FCEP do about this?
At the November Board meeting, Dr. Kristin McCabe-Kline approved a new, ad hoc committee, Women in Medicine, to investigate this very question. The committee will dedicate this first year to exploring gender issues within emergency medicine to determine:
- how those issues are affecting FCEP members;
- what FCEP can do to better support female members and gender equality efforts in general; and
- suggested methods of achieving these goals
Interested in joining this committee and shaping its future? Contact us now!
EVENT RECAP
FIX19 Tidbits
On Sept. 16-18, 2019, a group of women from UF Gainesville visited New York City and attended the FemInEM Idea Exchange (FIX) 2019 conference. Here are some tidbits from a few of our favorite lectures:
“From EBM to HBM” by Dr. Ken Milne
Evidence-based to Female-Based to Gender-Based to Humanist-Based Medicine
Main Point: Women are less noticed in the field of medicine, and their exclusion affects the quality of research and patient care.
See for Yourself:
Who gets most of the grant money?
Who rises to the top academic positions?
Who is the first author on a research paper?
Who is more likely to be introduced with their professional title at grand rounds? (Answer: 96% men vs. 66% women)
“I am an Angry but Effective Women” by Dr. Michelle Lall
Anger is a force that injects energy, intensity and urgency into battles that must be intense if they are to be won, but women’s anger is consistently silenced.
ANGRY MEN: empowered, passionate, competent, influential, understanding
vs.
ANGRY WOMEN: ugly, crazy, hysterical, aggressive, overly emotional, irrational, shrill
“B.R.U.H.” by Dr. Anwar Osborne
Main Point: We need to be allies to one another, on shift, in the boardroom, etc. This includes men and women.
B: Breathe & listen
R: Recognize
U: Update your vocabulary &
H: Hyping doesn’t hurt
This article is part of the following sections:
This article originally appeared in EMpulse Winter 2020. View the full print version of the magazine here.
Samantha manages fcep.org and publishes all content. Some articles may not be written by her. If you have questions about authorship or find an error, please email her directly.
